On One with D’ Fun Machine

‘D’ Fun Machine’—you have heard the name before: soca enthusiast and king, with a larger than life character.

The artiste, born Ezra Augustin, made his first entrance into the soca arena a year ago, with “Bacchanal Rampage”, an electrifying soca single. This was his first push into the spotlight, an unforgettable, defining moment—the artiste, whose talent is refreshing and prominent, captured the crown at his first attempt.

In a post-carnival interview, Ezra discussed his carnival season, in which he talked about his best moments, amongst other things.

He, at our request, ‘walked us through his carnival season’:

“My carnival season was very demanding this year. Last year I only had one song, “Bacchanal Rampage’, which was actually a celebratory song, because my band Red Unlimited celebrated ten years and I wanted to do something different; that’s how the whole thing came about,” he said.

“This year I had three songs and actually coming out of the comfort zone of the power soca and doing a groovy,“No Pappyshow”, which turned out to be my favourite song this year,” he said, adding that since he released three singles this year, he performed at more events, had more rehearsals, and a lot more interviews.The season he recalled, was a “fantastic experience”.

According to Ezra, one of the most rewarding moments, came when he performed at a number of schools on island and received an outpouring of love from the students.

“It made me realize that I have a lot of social responsibility to them as well: the manner in which I carry myself and what not— I really had to take that into consideration,”he said.

One of the best things about the carnival season is the collaborations, and this year, we received stellar collaborations from a number of our local artistes. When questioned on whether he intends to team up with a local artiste to release a mega hit soon, the artiste shared that he is enthusiastic to do so. In fact, a collaboration between the artiste and Hollywood HP almost happened this carnival season.

“I actually wanted to collaborate with Hollywood HP this year but things got so hectic around the studio, so unfortunately, we did not get time to do that,” he explained. “But it’s definitely in the cards. I think this will all be part of my development in soca. I definitely see myself doing a collaborationby next year,” Ezra added.

The 2014 Soca King, who came third in this year’s competition, discussed his placement at this year’s Soca Monarch show.

“Despite the fact that I placed third, which to me was a disappointing result,I was grateful in the fact that I went out there and I placed firstly; I went out there and I did my thing and I got fantastic support, especially from my people, ‘Jean Gros Islet’.I was so happy about that and just being there and seeing the fact that I’m exerting energy, and I’m getting it right back from the crowd, there’s no better feeling than that,” he said.

Ezra, 28, is slated toperform today, in New York, at the Labour Day celebrations. He gave us a taste of what we can look forward to in 2016, saying, fans can expect his usual larger than life character: that same loud, demanding presence on stage.